We started our walk at 7:30 today…the first as a group of five. Since Sarria is the primary starting point for the majority of Peregrinos, the path was crowded…much too crowded. It took away from the experience. Troy and Joann did much better than I expected and we made the 24k hike to Portomarin without too much trouble. The walk was harder than I anticipated, however, with more elevation change than I expected.
After we each had a shower, we walked across the Ponte Nova Portomarin bridge and had lunch at a restaurant called !Slurp! We sat in the back of the restaurant where the only other customer was a young French girl named Ombeline who told us she was hiking the Camino by herself and she started in St. Jean just like us over a month ago. She was eating an ice cream sundae and then went on to order a chicken finger salad and a large plate of garlic fries. She ate it all and I’m not quite sure how she did it. She told us that she hopes to become a comedian and it seemed that she had the personality to pull it off. I think Troy met the girl of his dreams, but alas…but we still have four days to go, so who knows.
We are expected to finally get some rain tonight and the weather will cool significantly. I can’t wait.
Some pics from today:
